The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Charles County Sheriff Troy Berry; and Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.
According to his plea agreement, from at least October 2012 through at least June 2015, Brandon used email, cloud storage programs, file sharing programs, internet chat messaging, smartphone messaging applications and other internet-based programs to distribute and receive child pornography.
On October 18, 2012, a website reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that one of its users, later identified as Brandon, had uploaded suspected child pornography to the website. A law enforcement review confirmed that a number of the files contained child pornography. A state search warrant was executed at Brandon's residence and seized among other items, Brandon's laptop. A forensic review of the laptop found approximately 700 digital files of interest, the majority of which were confirmed to be child pornography and child erotica. some of which portrayed sadistic and masochistic conduct and other depictions of violence. Three of the digital files were videos registered with the NCMEC Child Victim Identification Program, meaning the identities of the child victims portrayed in the videos have been confirmed by law enforcement.
On January 13, 2015, a cloud storage service website reported to NCMEC that 70 digital video files of suspected child pornography had been uploaded to Brandon's account. After confirming that certain of the files contained child pornography, federal law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Brandon's residence. On June 23, 2015, the federal search warrant was executed at Brandon's residence and digital media and electronics were seized. After waiving his rights, Brandon was interviewed by federal agents and admitted that he downloaded and shared child pornography via the internet using a variety of mediums, including email and cell phone messaging applications. The digital media seized during the search contained more than 1,350 images depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In addition, a review of Brandon's email and online storage accounts confirmed that Brandon had uploaded and distributed image and video files containing child pornography. Some of the videos and images involved toddler-aged and prepubescent females and some portrayed sadistic and masochistic conduct and other depictions of violence.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, Maryland State Police and Charles County Sheriff's Office for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Wine and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristi N. O'Malley, who are prosecuting the case.